No need. Steam cars didn't need multiple gear ratios either, it's just gas and diesel engines that make their torque in a relatively narrow powerband and need gear ratios in order to maintain their torque at multiple speeds.
--"If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn't thinking." -- George Patton

The Tesla Roadster was originally supposed to have a 2 speed transmission but apparently first gear couldn't hold that much torque so they scrapped it. It also added cost and complexity to an already expensive car. The first few Roadsters that they built actually had the 2 speed transmission in them but first gear was locked out. I would love to see an EV with a 2 or 3 speed transmission that can be manually controlled. I'm not sure about a fully manual transmission because you wouldn't need a clutch anyway so whats the point.

The Tesla Roadster was originally supposed to have a 2 speed transmission but apparently first gear couldn't hold that much torque so they scrapped it. It also added cost and complexity to an already expensive car. The first few Roadsters that they built actually had the 2 speed transmission in them but first gear was locked out. I would love to see an EV with a 2 or 3 speed transmission that can be manually controlled. I'm not sure about a fully manual transmission because you wouldn't need a clutch anyway so whats the point.

I'll pose an alternative premise that the reason EV's don't have gearboxes are because it would hurt efficiency that already makes them only borderline worth it over conventional IC designs. It's an extra stage of mechanical + inertial losses + weight that would make them not look so good, if they needed to have them. So they are implemented in a car w/o the extra hardware, and suffer from a shortage of rear wheel torque off-the-line and at low speeds (because no gear reduction) and limited top-speed (the latter being largely inconsequential because typically nobody in an EV would be testing ultimate speed in an EV in the first place).
_________________________________________________ It's not that I really needed 370 hp...but having 150+ hp riding shotgun at a moment's bidding w/o a 6000 rpm moonshot is what makes me feel like I'm in the right car for me. The roar of a v8 seals the deal!

Is the Change everything you had hoped? Do you feel safer? Does the world now love us? Where did your $'s go? (Ponzi-Stimulus Plan 2009)

From my understanding torque is available throughout the rev range. Horsepower isn't. So wouldn't having a transmission keeping the rpms up allow more horsepower?

Also, the wear reduction from having it spin slower seems worth it.

Im just not clear if having lower revs saves electricity the way it saves fuel. It would be neat to see the way an electric motor drives with a 7 speed dct transmission!
____________________________________2004 Mazda3 2.3 T -> 2012 Mazda3 Skyactiv GT w/tech

EVs (and by that I mean the Model S) is certainly not torque limited at the low end. According to this (will this even work, linking directly from google sesarch):dyno chart

It puts out more torque than a relatively high power gasline car up until 55 MPH, and significantly so. The gearing really only limits the top speed, so I agree that there is a compromise there, but it's probably not that important because that limit is still very high for a US car.

I would not be surprised to see future EV's use maybe a two speed transmission in order to increase the top speed. Low speed launches are typically tire limited anyway, so there isn't a need for more low end torque. One huge advantage of the electric motor is that it can control the torque output much more quickly than an IC engine, so things like traction control will work much better than they would in an IC engine car.

Yes, Tesla is an outlier example...unless you think all EV's will be built for performance like the top-of-the-line Tesla's. Just do a survey of all EV's that have had a feature in a car magazine...how many have had a torque rating of 2200 lb-ft?

The Camaro RS is the v6 model, isn't it?...not exactly blowing your socks off with low end torque.

Some EV's are rolling with only 400 lb-ft of motor torque. People see the "400" and think that is serious torque (which it is, when talking about IC mated to a multi-speed gearbox + axle ratio), but forget that the EV is a direct-drive configuration...so no gear reduction and no torque multiplication at the rear wheels. When they say "400", that means 400 is all you get, which does not compare all that well to a v6 Camaro that is putting down multiples of that number in 1st through 4th gear, at the rear wheels.

This is Trackaholic's pic:

_________________________________________________ It's not that I really needed 370 hp...but having 150+ hp riding shotgun at a moment's bidding w/o a 6000 rpm moonshot is what makes me feel like I'm in the right car for me. The roar of a v8 seals the deal!

Is the Change everything you had hoped? Do you feel safer? Does the world now love us? Where did your $'s go? (Ponzi-Stimulus Plan 2009)